Faceless Killers, by Henning Mankell

There has been a blossoming of interest in crime fiction by Scandinavian writers in the past few years. The cold, snowy landscape and the long dark winters have proven fertile ground for a particularly dark mystery style. Henning Mankell stands out even among a group of well-respected writers that includes Håkan Nesser, Helen Tursten, and Asa Larsson. Mankell’s dark series features Swedish Detective Superintendent Kurt Wallender. Wallender is a conscientious policeman, but his personal life is terribly somber. He and his wife are separated. His daughter has distanced herself from him, and his father is slowly slipping into senility. Wallender’s response to these difficulties is to turn to the bottle, and his health suffers as a result. There is a strong sense of northern melancholy pervading the books.

In this series opener, Wallender finds himself investigating the violent and apparently senseless killing of an elderly farm couple. There are hints that the crime was committed by recent immigrants to Sweden from Africa, and resentment against these newcomers to the country erupts into more violence before Wallender can unravel the mystery. Mankell deftly uses his story to examine the problems that large-scale immigration has brought to the previously homogeneous countries of northern Europe during the last part of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st.

A sense of cold runs through the story, and Mankell manages to convey that cold in a way that will bring a shiver to the reader. Kurt Wallender is a strong addition to the ranks of realistically-portrayed police detectives. Mankell makes his protagonist fully human, and Wallender’s failings as are important to the story as his successes. If you are interested in police procedurals, fascinating characters, tight plotting, and an unusual setting, Henning Mankell is a great introduction to the world of Scandinavian crime fiction.

Check the WRL catalog for Faceless Killers